What is your story?
What makes a great book, play, or movie? Exactly the same thing that makes a good speech – a great story! Long after we’ve forgotten the specific details, we still remember the stories and the messages that touched us. They become part of our lives and our culture.
Use stories to make your point. We all love stories because, unlike real life, they have a purpose, a beginning, middle, and end, and often a dramatic lesson. Screenwriter Robert McKee says, “Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience.” (A story is NOT a joke, although good stories can be and often are funny.)
Start by identifying your main theme or purpose – your plot – and any subplots. A Gap executive I’ll call John had just 80 minutes to work with me on an important speech. He had recently been promoted and now was speaking for eight minutes to 500 young store managers. His topic was a program to get employees to contribute money-saving ideas. His subtext was, “I deserved to get this promotion.”
In eight minutes, he had to excite support for the money-saving program. If he did it well and inspired every Gap manager to go back to inspire their employees, the impact could be incredible.
“Do exactly what I tell you,” I said. “First, never say ‘Good morning.’ It’s boring, it’s predictable, and the previous six speakers have already said it! Walk on stage, look at the audience, and say, ‘We are here to talk about heroes.’ In just seven words, you’ve proven that this is not another dull corporate speech.
“’We are here to talk about heroes,’ you say, ‘Gap heroes. They may be sitting all around you. They may be YOU.’”
Then I asked John to tell me a story about someone who had saved the company money. He showed me statistics! “Numbers are numbing,” I told him. “Where’s the made-for-television movie?” We had to phone their accounting department to get a story.
One young man in shipping noticed that seven Gap newsletters were going out in separate packets to the same location. This mailroom hero asked if it would be OK to pack them together with a note requesting distribution on the other end. This worked well, so he urged his colleagues to question similar duplications. “We own stock in the Gap, not FedEx,” he told them. His idea saved the Gap $200,000 that year.
Whenever you tell a story, be ready to answer the audience’s next question. John’s audience would be wondering, “What did the Gap do with that $200,000?” So we researched some answers: “$200,000 is 18 miles of shelving. It’s carrying an additional jean size. It’s a month of ‘The Gap Rocks’ commercials.”
To close, John would challenge his audience: “As Gap employees, you have good ideas all the time. Do you write them up and submit them so they can be evaluated? Or do you say, ‘What’s in it for me?’” This is where John would talk about cash rewards.
John rehearsed his eight-minute speech, polishing, tightening, and adding more energy with each run-through until he could do it without notes. All in our 80 minutes!
He concluded his speech by playing David Bowie’s “Heroes,” which tied the opening into the close in a perfect circle. Maybe you already know that my brother, Robert Fripp, is the legendary guitarist who played on Bowie’s iconic “Heroes?” You might not know that he’s a wonderfully talented speaker. Enjoy this segment from our presentation together, “How to Be a Hero for More than One Day.”
If you want to become a great speaker easily, conveniently, and quickly, Fripp Virtual Training can help. Enjoy three free chapters on Stories, Openings, and Sales: http://frippvt.com
“I wanted a super bowl-quality coach, and I was lucky to be introduced to Patricia Fripp. Her help in coaching and scripting was world class. With Patricia Fripp on your team, you can go places.”
– Don Yaeger, Long-Time Associate Editor for Sports Illustrated magazine, Award-Winning Keynote Speaker, New York Times Best-Selling Author
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Stories Matter – Help with Your Storytelling for More Powerful Presentations
Just a few of the many complimentary resources on Fripp.com:
- How to Tell Better Stories in Your Speeches
- How to Make Your Presentation “Stick” – Tell Authentic Stories
- Your Everyday Life Is Your Best Source for Stories
- Do You Tell Your Own Stories? Why & How to Create Original Stories
- The Importance of A Good Story – FrippVT Video
- Public Speaking – Use Storytelling to Be Powerful & Persuasive
- Storytelling – Help Your Audience “See” Your Characters
- Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling
- Your Presentation – Remember the Three S’s of Dynamic Stories
- Storytelling – Help Your Audience “See” Your Characters
- Story Strategy to Improve Your Sales Presentations – Part 1
Executive Speech Coach and Hall of Fame Keynote Speaker Patricia Fripp is hired by those who realize that powerful, persuasive presentation skills give them a competitive edge.
